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The Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives

Jonathan Haidt is a psychologist who focuses his research on the psychology of liberals versus conservatives. This is a fantastic lecture he gives where he talks about the moral differences between the two ideologies. Specifically, he discusses what his research has found to be the most important moral issues to liberals and conservatives. Its lengthy at 18 minutes, but it is absolutely worth your time to watch...

If I could take your pain and frame it, and hang it on my wall,
maybe you would never have to hurt again...

I like how I post a thoughtful, scientific, non-partisan discussion of the differences between liberals and conservatives, and the first post is partisan horse ****. How about if the subject matter is too over your head, you just stay out of the thread...?

Interesting video. Dont agree with everything in it, and my issues are more towards any presentation/study like that(though its obviously impossible to go over everything they did in a 18 minute video), but the overall conclusion is pretty acceptable if unsurprising.

Interesting video. Dont agree with everything in it, and my issues are more towards any presentation/study like that(though its obviously impossible to go over everything they did in a 18 minute video), but the overall conclusion is pretty acceptable if unsurprising.

@ Jesusland.

The most interesting thing I got from that short presentation is how the liberal/conservative divide presents similarly (if not identically) across all countries and populations. Yet, the U.S. is the one with this hyper-partisan environment? I think the answer to that lies in the Republican/Democrat dichotomy moreso than the liberal/conservative one...

I agree. Hence why the people in real power, desperately do not want the people to realize that there is no real difference between the parties. Maintaining that illusion is the only way they can maintain their DC puppet show.

Re: The Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives

Not as biased and crazy as I was expecting. It is also important to note that he is specifically talking about liberals and conservatives regarding only social issues and not fiscal issues. That really puts a lot of people into another category than what they typically would claim to...i.e. I would be fairly liberal socially but extremely conservative fiscally.

Not as biased and crazy as I was expecting. It is also important to note that he is specifically talking about liberals and conservatives regarding only social issues and not fiscal issues. That really puts a lot of people into another category than what they typically would claim to...i.e. I would be fairly liberal socially but extremely conservative fiscally.

I should apologize for not describing it correctly, then. Psychologists only really care about the social aspect of things like this. In the end, even the fiscal side comes back to it. Funding for war? Purity/Sanctity. Funding for "entitlements"? Fairness/Reciprocity. I could go on, but they all tie back into the morality aspects he describes.

As for you being socially liberal, let me ask you a few questions. Obviously you are OK with gays marrying and having the same rights as straights, but are you accepting of their lifestyle, or are you willing to "deal with it"? Same with abortions. Are you stepping back and saying that it's OK for others to get abortions because it's their body despite morally thinking abortions are wrong, or do you truly have no issues with abortions? I ask because I talk to quite a few people who claim to be socially liberal, but are really just willing to let others live their lives. And that's not a bad thing in the slightest. There is a lot to be said about someone who fundamentally disagrees with something, but is willing to let others live their lives as they see fit. But I would still classify those people as socially conservative. They are just good people and are willing to let others live how they want.

I'm surprised you went into that video expecting it to be crazy and bias. I make it a point not to post anything overly partisan, if it's partisan at all. Especially when delving into something like this, I wouldn't post anything at all unless I was confident it was objective...

Re: The Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives

Originally Posted by Locke

I should apologize for not describing it correctly, then. Psychologists only really care about the social aspect of things like this. In the end, even the fiscal side comes back to it. Funding for war? Purity/Sanctity. Funding for "entitlements"? Fairness/Reciprocity. I could go on, but they all tie back into the morality aspects he describes.

As for you being socially liberal, let me ask you a few questions. Obviously you are OK with gays marrying and having the same rights as straights, but are you accepting of their lifestyle, or are you willing to "deal with it"? Same with abortions. Are you stepping back and saying that it's OK for others to get abortions because it's their body despite morally thinking abortions are wrong, or do you truly have no issues with abortions? I ask because I talk to quite a few people who claim to be socially liberal, but are really just willing to let others live their lives. And that's not a bad thing in the slightest. There is a lot to be said about someone who fundamentally disagrees with something, but is willing to let others live their lives as they see fit. But I would still classify those people as socially conservative. They are just good people and are willing to let others live how they want.

I'm surprised you went into that video expecting it to be crazy and bias. I make it a point not to post anything overly partisan, if it's partisan at all. Especially when delving into something like this, I wouldn't post anything at all unless I was confident it was objective...

I should have known it wasn't too crazy given that you posted it but I read the comments below the video first and got jaded. I thought they would be slamming religion with the Jesusland stuff. However, it pretty well called out the liberals just as much.

You would be correct that ultimately, I feel that abortion is morally wrong but that it is not my right to dictate to others how to live their life. I am less sure about homosexuality as I think it is more inherent to one's being and not as much of a pure choice. I think of it as more of a genetic anomaly than a life choice. I think the Bible is pretty clear on abortion but I think the verses often quoted regarding homosexuality being a sin are not interpreted correctly. Thus, I am uncertain as to my ultimate view of morality regarding homosexuality. However, I am crystal clear on my convictions regarding impeding the rights of others and would never support outlawing anything that boils down to personal choice regardless of how I might feel about the issue personally.

While we are on the subject, let me give you a peek into my brain and heart...you will see why a lot people don't get me, especially the people who think they are a lot like me. God gives us the choice to do whatever we want. We can follow him or not, believe in him or not, act morally or not, or be self-righteous or not. God, in my opinion, would absolutely not condone garnering moral actions through the removal of choices. If he wanted to make immorality impossible or illegal, he would have created us differently. We make choices every second of every day for a variety of reasons and we are ultimately accountable for those choices. Some of those choices will be good, some bad, some moral, some immoral. However, those choices make us who we are and that is the crux of what God loves about us. That is why the religious right is such a train wreck right now as is much of the liberal movement...they are trying to mandate their morality and only ensure the rights applicable to them. I don't jive with that as it violates my personal morality and, in my opinion, God's morality.

I hope this makes sense to someone other than me as people usually look at me like I have a boob on my head when I have tried to explain my views in the past. Try throwing that one out in Sunday School...it didn't go over too well.

I should have known it wasn't too crazy given that you posted it but I read the comments below the video first and got jaded. I thought they would be slamming religion with the Jesusland stuff. However, it pretty well called out the liberals just as much.

You would be correct that ultimately, I feel that abortion is morally wrong but that it is not my right to dictate to others how to live their life. I am less sure about homosexuality as I think it is more inherent to one's being and not as much of a pure choice. I think of it as more of a genetic anomaly than a life choice. I think the Bible is pretty clear on abortion but I think the verses often quoted regarding homosexuality being a sin are not interpreted correctly. Thus, I am uncertain as to my ultimate view of morality regarding homosexuality. However, I am crystal clear on my convictions regarding impeding the rights of others and would never support outlawing anything that boils down to personal choice regardless of how I might feel about the issue personally.

While we are on the subject, let me give you a peek into my brain and heart...you will see why a lot people don't get me, especially the people who think they are a lot like me. God gives us the choice to do whatever we want. We can follow him or not, believe in him or not, act morally or not, or be self-righteous or not. God, in my opinion, would absolutely not condone garnering moral actions through the removal of choices. If he wanted to make immorality impossible or illegal, he would have created us differently. We make choices every second of every day for a variety of reasons and we are ultimately accountable for those choices. Some of those choices will be good, some bad, some moral, some immoral. However, those choices make us who we are and that is the crux of what God loves about us. That is why the religious right is such a train wreck right now as is much of the liberal movement...they are trying to mandate their morality and only ensure the rights applicable to them. I don't jive with that as it violates my personal morality and, in my opinion, God's morality.

I hope this makes sense to someone other than me as people usually look at me like I have a boob on my head when I have tried to explain my views in the past. Try throwing that one out in Sunday School...it didn't go over too well.

I think that is by far the most reasonable way to look at Christianity. And you wouldn't be the first person I've spoken with to see it that way. The issue with the Christian right is that despite the majority feeling the same way you do, it's the extreme minority that's the loudest. You get people like Pat Robertson who come out and despite representing that minority, dub themselves as spokesmen for all Christians, making them all look bad. It's a pity that the media focuses only on the outlandish like that. But hey, people want to see the outlandish, so that's what the media gives them. It's a terrible situation we're in...